On March 30, KERA-TV will launch television programs and digital resources to support at-home learning for students in more than 120 school districts across North Texas. The content will air on KERA TV weekdays from 6 a.m.- 6 p.m., and will be available for free online at KERA Learn! The member station of PBS and NPR designed the programming around Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards and included material for levels pre-k through 12th grade.
With Dallas-area school districts closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, students, educators, and parents-turned-teachers are facing the unexpected challenge of carrying on an at-home education. KERA Learn! aims to help alleviate the burden this stressful situation is placing on everybody. (Parents, this would be a good time to let go of the guilt and loosen up the house rules regarding screen time. Just keep yourself and your kids sane and happy however you see fit!)
The curriculum-based television programs include little-kid-friendly shows like Cyberchase and Wild Kratts, as well as stuff for the big kids, like acclaimed nature documentary series NOVA, Masterpiece Theater’s Little Women, and history special Shakespeare’s Tomb. You can view the full schedule for the week, which is color coded by age group, here. The shows will air on KERA and live stream on KERA’s website.
The station’s website will also host a variety of educational activities, like at-home lesson plans, discussion guides that correspond with KERA shows, and writing activities. Teachers and parents will want to check out the At-Home Learning Toolkit for more ideas.
This is an uncertain time, and it’s even more confusing for the little (and not-so-little) ones in our lives. Even those who are too young to fully understand the situation know that there’s something amiss in the world, and it’s important to give them some sense of the normalcy we were privileged to grow up with. KERA’s website offers a few small ways to do that–from exercises like drawing, to guides on how to talk to your child about COVID-19, and establishing new routines.
